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Designed & Maintained By Carol Gingell

<< Pages 21-30

The church of St. Michael at Irstead with bundles of reed stacked in the foreground.

Another view of St. Michaels’s church at Irstead from 1905 in which you can clearly see that the roof was in the process of being re-thatched.

The holiday party moored in front of Thurne Dyke windpump in 1905. The yacht appears to be one of the 30ft, sloop-rigged, “Norman” class of sailing cruisers which were built by Ernest Collins.

The view looking across the main river from Thurne Dyke windpump to the farm which once stood on the riverbank there.

The sailing cruiser “Skylark” - I am not certain, but I think that this may have been taken in Thurne Dyke itself, the building which is now the Lion Inn was still a farmhouse in 1905 and would have been hidden behind the trees you see in the background.

A houseboat moored at Potter Heigham in 1905. As yet, I haven’t been able to identify what this was - it almost looks like a pleasure wherry but there is no mast, nor does there appear to have been room for one with the cabin structure as it is.

Pages 41-50 >>

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More of Joseph Benson’s photographs from 1905

Another unidentified pleasure wherry with a mixed party onboard - there would have been separate cabins for ladies and gentlemen. It is interesting to see that the sail has its “bonnet” laced onto the bottom which increased the sail area to take maximum advantage of the available wind.

I think that this is probably High’s Mill at Potter Heigham which was built by the Stalham millwright, William Rust c1875. The mill still stands upstream of the road bridges, although the sails have now gone, and the dyke which once connected it to the main river has been filled in.